//------------------------------//
// 8 - United in Purpose 
// Story: Bind on Pickup 
// by David Silver 
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Spike waved his staff in a slow side to side motion as energy flowed from its tip into the sleeping form of Sandra. He wasn't repeating the word, it seemed to come naturally enough to him, and so long as he continued to sway, the power came. Glances at his guildchain showed that Sandra's health was filling in nicely, his magic proving effective.

"Mmmng?" She cracked open an eye, looking up at the ceiling. "Aw damn it all… again?" She sat up, the blanket over her sliding down as she looked around, only then noticing Spike there. "What?!" She yanked the blanket up to cover herself, cheeks on fire and eyes wide. "Why are you here?!"

Spike tilted his head. “Why wouldn’t I be here? We dragged you back here from outside the city.”

"T-thank you?" She threw her legs over the side, though held her blanket close. "That's… not how that usually works." She raised a lone finger, the other arm crossed over her chest. "I was defeated, and I'm still a low enough rank, they should have yanked me back without any other adventurers around, and… What?"

"That's where you were wrong," gloated Spike with a big grin. "You had three adventurers with you that were still ready to go. Why, look here." He jangled his guildchain softly. "Master of life itself, watch out."

"Is that a guild chain?!" she shrilly yelped, shrinking back. "Did you steal that?! How did you get that? We're gonna be in so much trouble!" She threw her free hand wide. "I thought you were the nicest one of the three. Did that big bruiser talk you--"

"Woah woah woah, calm down. You're really pulling a Twilight there." He made soft placating motions in the air. "Everything's alright. I have this legally, paid for and everything."

Sandra eyed it warily. “... You shouldn’t be able to have that. Summons can’t… learn skills, or anything.”

"And yet, here it is." He gently swayed his staff at her. "And here I am, casting spells at you. So, what does that tell you?"

Sandra looked down. If they had classes now… but they were clearly summoned… three at once from a summon egg found in a low level area. Her eyes widened.

“That wasn’t a really random roll on the summon… that was not a normal summon at all!” She shifted around, her earlier freakout forgotten. “It was a special event! You’re special summons that levels up!” Her eyes widened. “It’s the kind of stuff that only happens to adventurers. The kind that gets books written about them and everyone remembers!”

Spike made a frustrated noise. “I mean… I guess that’s kinda right but also not right.”

“I mean, you’re summons and you got levels, right? That sounds about right.”

“No!” Spike threw his free hand up in exasperation. “The lady in the guild said summons are created right there, and we weren’t created right there. We got pulled there from where we were before that!”

She curled a finger, peering at him skeptically. "Look, for right now… let's accept what's in front of us." She nodded softly, as if dispensing sage advice. "We know, for a fact, you can use a guild chain and learn a class. That's great! We've just become so much more… everything. What classes did the other two take?"

"That much is true, but I need to get something straight." He hiked a thumb at himself. "We're not following your orders like you own us, because you don't. We're going to keep looking for a way back." He turned the thumb outwards to the world at large. "And you're totally welcome to come with us, if you want, but we're going."

"But you came--"

"--That wasn't our choice. Come on, the other two are waiting for us." He turned for the door, holding his staff in both hands.

He got up and she did not. He looked back. “You coming?”

“Y-you go on,” she said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

He paused a moment, but pressed on with the faintest shrug, leaving her behind. He went right back down the hallway he came from, where Smolder was busy reading some kind of leaflet. "Hey, what are you reading there?"

"Spike!" She tossed it aside, bouncing to her feet with a smile. "Everything cool?"

“Yeah,” Spike said. “I tried to explain that we weren’t summons…” Spike trailed off.

Garble folded his arms. “And?”

Spike smiled sheepishly. “She… at least understands a little better?”

Garble raised his eyebrow. “Did this include her agreeing that we weren’t her slaves?”

“I…” he rubbed the back of his head. “Told her that we weren’t, at least? And then I left before she could tell me no.”

“Well--” Garble said, before the door opened again. Sandra appeared, clad in her shortrobe and pants. She surveyed the three dragon’s in her room, her eyes far more wary than before. “So… you three got classes?”

“Heck yes!” Smolder popped up instantly, tossing her daggers up. “I got intersector.” She grabbed one dagger out of the air, the other falling at her feet. “Oop.” She picked it up, posing with it. “Haa.”

“I got a…” Garble motioned to the shield currently on his back. “I forget. The shield class.”

Sandra danced a finger from Smolder to Garble and down to Spike. "That's… not a terrible array… Are you…" She paused a moment, taking a breath with her eyes closed before they opened. "Alright. You want to do this, right?"

Spike nodded, gripping his staff a bit more tightly.

Smolder waved with a twirl of her dagger. "We're here, and I don't plan to sit around. Let's beat things up and find out how to get home."

Garble threw up both hands. "Now we're cool going home? Finally. Yeah, let's do that. So which way is that?"

Sandra bit her lip. “So… there’s one thing I can do. That I think will work.”

Garble scowled and raised his voice. “You could have done something all day and--”

Smolder smacked him in his side. “Hey. Don’t yell at her when she’s about to do it. C’mon.”

Sandra pulled her guildchain off of her arm, opening up the menu. She navigated to the summon registration, which still had that “summon active” menu on it, for the three dragons occupying her three party slots. And she put it over on “dismiss summon.”

Her finger twitched over it. “This will… this will dismiss the summons, which normally releases the uh… the magic that the summons are made of. If you’re really from somewhere else. It’ll just… send you back.”

"Then you'll be home, nice and safe, and I'll be here… alone." Her finger wavered over the needed button. "Back at the bottom of the barrel… Failing, again... " She sniffed a gob of snot she hadn't even noticed until she did it. "I'll figure something out!" she suddenly defiantly claimed, standing straight. "I can do this, and this is the right thing to do."

Garble watched her struggle with a furrowed brow, clearly bored with it. Smolder and Spike watched with greater interest, both leaning forward, watching her. Spike broke the silence of the dragons, "You'll be alright."

"Huh?" She snapped out of the little mental bubble she had placed herself in. "Oh, yeah… I'll be… I'll be just fine…" Her finger descended towards it. "Not like… Gods above and below, Sandra, do something right!" She suddenly smashed the button with a firm press of her finger, looking away from them, eyes squeezed shut as tears escaped with clear expectation that her new party would vanish.

There was a shimmering around the three dragons, with motes of light lifting off them. Spike looked around him, feeling like he was floating a little, with the light growing in intensity. It grew and it grew and the softness of the light became hard, with Sandra having to cover her eyes.

And then, the light faded away, leaving three dragons standing in the healer’s hut, still in another world, still with Sandra there.

“Oh,” Spike said, looking himself over. “I guess it didn’t do anything.”

Sandra quickly checked her menu. The summons were missing, but she still had three demi-human party members, an interceptor, a vitamancer, and a bulwark.

"But…"

"Oh great!" groaned out Garble, turning away with smoke trailing from his mouth. "What's your next big idea?"

Smolder lifted her shoulders softly. "Well, I mean, thanks for trying at least. I do appreciate that."

"That was brave." Spike nodded at Sandra. "I know you didn't want to do that."

"But…" Sandra shook her head slowly. "I am so confused right now."

Spike lifted his shoulders. "Well, we aren't going to figure it out here with the hurt people. I say we go get something to eat and plan our next move."

"Huh, can't argue with Spike," admitted Garble with naked surprise, his shoulders shrugging. "Where do we get something to eat around here?"

Sandra peered at her summons. "You get hungry too? You really aren't summons." She huffed as she walked past them, shaking her head. "Alright… so, feed four people with no money. How h--"

Her talk was interrupted with a scaled fist thumping her right in the chest. Garble dropped a small bag of coins into her hand as it came up reflexively. "We didn't come out entirely empty-handed, now make with the real magic and turn that into grub, and somewhere decent to sleep."

Dazed, but not entirely displeased, she resumed her walk, counting the currency rapidly. "This is like two days of field harvesting… Nice job!"

Garble nodded as he smirked towards his dragon friends, and Spike looked over to the, quite frankly, handful of coins she had. If those were bits it wouldn’t be too much… maybe it was more money here?

"Let's get something nice," she decided, folding the bag shut and tucking it away. "Tomorrow, we do this seriously. I don't know exactly how to get you home, but we're going to do what we can, the right way. We'll be a team! I mean, if nothing else, there's always the top."

"Top?" Spike raised a brow, following along after her. "Top of what?"

"That." She hiked a thumb at the tower that loomed over the city. "They say if you get to the top of that thing, you get one wish. Getting you home sounds like a wish to me."

“How many people have been to the top?” Smolder raised an eyebrow.

Sandra shrugged. “Well, everyone’s heard of at least someone who made it to the top, but… I mean someone must have made it to the top, elsewise how would we know you get a wish?”

Spike and Smolder gave each other a dubious look but didn’t say anything.

“Okay! We’re here!” Sandra said, leading them to a cart on the side of the road, with a smiling demi human standing behind a cart with steam billowing out of it. “Delicious food! Four please.”

The demi human, a rabbit with twitching ears and a dancing nose, reached in and pulled out four sticks with some kind of meat on them, and Sandra paid the man with the majority of the coins she was handed, and she took the sticks and gave one each to the dragons, immediately starting to chow down on it.

Garble and Smolder also started in, eagerly biting off the meat on it, while Spike looked on to his meat-stick with worry. “What… exactly is this?”

Sandra swallowed roughly. “I dunno--” Without waiting she took another bite, and mid chew kept talking, “I think it’s some kind of drop from some kinda monster? It’s good, whatever it is.”

“Mm hmm!” Smolder agreed readily, swallowing herself. “If you’re not gonna have it, I’ll take it.” She reached over, greed in her eyes.

Spike pulled it away. “N-no… I’m hungry.” He took a tentative bite. It was juicy and heavily spiced, and it was pretty good.

It was the end of the day, but the start of a new party and purpose.